'We need shale oil producers to stay,' says UAE oil minister

"We have seen oversupply coming from shale oil and that needed to be corrected" he said. (Getty Images)

The world needs shale oil producers to continue operating and a
fair price for oil would allow them to do so, United Arab Emirates oil minister
Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazroui said at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi on
Tuesday.

Earlier, Mazroui had
criticised shale oil producers, saying they were responsible for oversupply in
the market and that OPEC was sticking to its current production strategy in
order to send them that message.

But later, in answer
to a question, Mazroui said shale oil was an important part of the market and
its supply should not be eliminated.

"I'm not going
to give you a price but I would suggest something we all know, that the shale
oil producers are very important for the market supply and we all need them to
stay," he said.

"So if that is
the case, since they are producing almost 4 million (barrels per day) today, I
think whatever price that makes shale oil continue to be produced is going to
be the fair price for the conventional producers to produce, whether 60 or 70
or 80 or whatever figure - that is where the market will stabilise."

Mazroui also told the conference the drop in oil prices is not justified, but said he was still confident that
OPEC's decision in November not to cut output was the right decision. If OPEC
had decided then to cut, "we will be regretting it today".

He also said OPEC
had no intention of meeting before its next scheduled meeting in June, or of
cutting production.